Book 3

I first heard of Jhumpa Lahiri when her book "The Namesake" was released as a movie. Though her first book "Interpreter of Maladies" was an award winning book, I had not heard much about her. I got Interpreter at a bookstore and read 2 stories and gave up. Later when I tried to read Namesake I was hooked. Namesake was written very well and I'm sure Indian living away from their homeland could relate to it.

As soon as "Unaccustomed Earth" was published I rushed and got a copy. I was not aware that it was a collection of short stories. When I flipped through the book I realized this and gave up since I am not a big fan of short stories. I feel that by the time I get to know the characters the story ends. Soon I forgot about this book. Two weeks back we went to a friend's place and I saw that she was reading this book. It piqued my interest so I decided to give it a try again.

I was surprised that I actually found the book a little interesting and soon I finished the entire book. This book splits the experiences of the characters in Namesake into different stories. Essentially the book is again about Bengali immigrants and their second generation kids. What we got as a whole in Namesake we get in parts in this book. Most of the stories are engrossing and this time she has even taken us to Rome in the third part of Hema-Kaushik trilogy. The book is a good read. Since I live in New England I am able to recognize most of the places that are mentioned in the stories. Maybe that's why I enjoyed the book a little more.

A short description of each story is given below.

The book has 6 individual stories. The last story is written in 3 parts. The title story "Unaccustomed Earth" deals with a father - daughter relationship. I don't know about most people but I get along very well with my dad. So I could really not relate to this story where the daughter is estranged from her dad and they hardly have anything in common to talk about. The story is about the daughter debating about asking her father to stay with them since he is lonely now. She finally decides to ask him to stay and his reply forms the rest of the story.

The second story "Hell - Heaven" is the narrated by the daughter of an immigrant Bengali family who is befriend by a homesick Bengali student. Her mother forms a bond with this new person and has a tough time letting him go when he decides to marry an American girl. She feels that he will ultimately end up heartbroken as the American girl will eventually dump him. Does he get dumped? Is anybody left with a broken heart? Read the story to find out.

"A Choice of Accomodations" is a story of a Bengali guy and his non Bengali wife who head to his school to attend the wedding of his old friend. They decide to make it a vacation, leaving their kids behind with his in-laws. While attending the wedding some unpredictable events happen and leave the couple pondering about their relationship.

Brother - sister sentiment is the focus of "Only Goodness". Sudha, the elder sister of Rahul, introduces him to alcohol, unaware that this will be the beginning of his ruin. He soon becomes an alcoholic and the family has a downward spiral from there. What is tough to digest is that though Sudha was a doting sister when Rahul was young, she stays aloof of his drinking problem and no one in the family tries to acknowledge the fact and take a positive action. What happens to Rahul and his family? That is the story.

"Nobody's Business" is about a Bengali girl Sang (short for Sangeeta) who lives with 2 housemates - Paul and Heather. Sang has an Egyptian boyfriend. Though things seem rosy and pretty, soon there is a lot of confusion and pain. Paul unknowingly gets to know a secret about Farouq that can change Sang's relationship with him. Will he share it with her even though he knows her life will never remain the same again?

"Hema and Kaushik" - This story is written in 3 parts. The first part is a first person narrative by teenage Hema about the time when she is forced to share her house with Kaushik and his parents when they decide to come back to US after a few years in Bombay. Hema narrates her memories of the stay. The second part takes us a few years into the future and is first person narrative by Kaushik about his current life. The third part advances even further into time when both Hema and Kaushik have totally different lives and meet unexpectedly in Rome. Their experiences in Rome completes the trilogy.

On the whole a good read, though initially I felt skeptic about reading over and over about the lives of Bengali immigrants in US.

Book 1.75

If you had read my previous posts you will recognize this book. After all this is the book that motivated me to start this quest to finish 52 books in 52 weeks. Try as I might to be partial to this one book, I am unable to be so.

The book is basically the result of a blog. It follows the monotonous life of a secretary who wants something exciting in her life and so sets our to master french cooking by trying out all the recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" within a year. She also starts a blog detailing her trials and tribulations druing this culinary journey.

Though the book starts off on a very positive and energetic note, midway the Julie seems to lose the readers (or rather me). She tries to portray many events in a humorous manner to keep the reader entertained but personally I felt it was getting too repititious. We are constantly reminded, throughout the book, that she is the only solidly married person among all her friends. You seriously don't know whether she considers it a boon or a bane.

The imaginary world of Julia portrayed by the author is an utter waste of pages. I didn't find it remotely interesting. She could have taken a few lessons from other fiction writers to portray the imaginary world of Julia in a much better way.

Try as I might to finish this book, I had to give up 3/4th into the book. I just didn't find it funny any more. Though this book motivated me to try something new I will have to sadly give up on this book. I look forward to reading a better book by Julie.

p.s. This book is being made into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. So if any of you want to read this book, wait for a few days and watch the movie instead :)

Book 1

Real Time with Bill Maher is one of our favorite shows. We watch it whenever we find it while surfing channels. A few days ago Carol Leifer was one of his guests. She was promoting her book - When You Lie About Your Age The Terrorists Win. The title was really intriguing and the discussion motivated me to search for this book and place a hold on it. I was a few pages into Oil on the Brain when the library mailed me saying the book had arrived.

Let me tell you I had no idea about Carol before I read this book. I gathered from the note on the dust jacket that she is a stand up comedian and has written a number of scripts for SNL and Seinfeld. I checked out the book and started reading the first few pages in the library. The book is definitely a page turner. It's like taking a peek into some stranger's diary and by the end of the book you feel you have become aquainted with the person.

The book starts off on a funny note. It's a random collection of events that the author has gone through. We can read the book in any order and not miss anything as each chapter covers an event and each event is not really related. Some chapters such as "40 Things I Know at 50" and "Shhh! I'm Driving" are really hilarious. A few like "Sticking with Gravity", "Five Lessons of Animal Adoption" convey a message served with humor. "Creating a Jew", "Soul to Sole" and "76 Trombones" are more serious chapters which cover some somber memories of the author.

I read the book with the image of Carol standing on a stage doing a stand up act where she narrates the book. The book is written in such a way that it is much better to read when we think of it like a stand up act. On the whole it was a good read (I did finish it within 3 days). It's more like one of the Chicken Soup series books but with much more humor. I will not buy a copy of the book but I would definitely recommend my friends to read the book once.

Videos of the Week

This week has been pretty eventful in terms of videos. While browsing the net I found the following video. The video has been shot in Central Station Antwerp. Take a look before going any further.

This is one of the best videos I have seen in a long time. The dance starts slowly but gets better by the second. I've seen a lot of hindi and tamil movie songs where we see so many dancers matching their steps in sync. There are many retakes to get it right. But to do the same thing in real time is very tough. The dancers have really pulled it off here.

I have watched this video multiple times now. Each time it brings a smile to my face. It's nice to see the reactions of the bystanders. I am sure most of the commuters must have some worry or the other. While watching this all of them forgot all their problems and enjoyed every second of this performance. Many of them try to join in and participate in it. Most of the people who have commented on youtube hope something like this would happen during their commute. Me too :) It sure made my day. I'm positive everyone who watches this video will definitely enjoy it and smile along the way.

I got the next video while going through the comments of the above video. A similar stunt was pulled sometime back in Liverpool station by TMobile for an ad. Watch this video.

This video was slightly different in that the dancers tried to make almost everyone dance. I personally liked the sound of music one better than this. This was taken more in a commercial angle. The Belgium one seemed to be more about pure fun and human bonding.

The third video though has become almost a viral video in the past 2 - 3 days. It's the audition for the show Britain's Got Talent. Usually we see a lot of people with no talent coming and wasting the judges' and the viewers' time. Here we see a person who looks exactly like that kind of person. She exhibits a rather cocky attitude and people feel she is reaching for the stars when she may not even be able to reach for the ceiling. When she starts to sing, what happens??

Well I have been unable to find an embeddable video for now. So use the following link to take a look at the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

After watching this video I was left wondering why she didn't get a chance till now to perform and become a big star. I guess opportunities are a little difficult to come by. The best thing about this performance is that even Simon Cowell, who is full of harsh criticisms, was overwhelmed by Susan's singing. Every audience member must have felt so foolish for having discounted Susan for a petty performer who was there to waste their precious time. In just one minute the audience was transformed into a priveleged set of people who got to listen live to Susan. I hope she wins this season.

I'm off to start hunting for more interesting videos.

52 Weeks 52 Books

Off late I have been spending a lot of time doing nothing in particular. Of course the Masters coursework keeps me busy but the free time in hand has been misused a lot. I was just wondering about this when I picked up a book titled "Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously" in the library. Right from the cover it oozed of chick flick material and generally I stay away from such books. Since I was bored with reading the same type of thrillers and classics I decided to give this book a try. Plus Amazon had a good review of the book too.

Anyway I picked up the book and started reading it in the library. The book is basically about a lady who is in a dead end secretarial job decides to reclaim her life. She does this by trying to cook all the 524 recipes presented in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking within a year.

This got me thinking. Well I already cook so there's no point in me trying something similar to her idea. Therefore I decided to do something different. I plan to read atleast 1 book per week and then share my views about the book on this blog. The books will not necessarily be just fiction. I hope to read about a wide variety of topics and build my general knowledge too in this journey.

The first step in this journey is "Oil on the Brain" by Lisa Margonelli. See you at the other end of the cover.